LifeNews.com Pro-Life News Report
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
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Current Headlines
• Senate Judiciary Committee Will Vote on Pro-Abortion Elena Kagan Next Week
• U.S Embassy in Kenya Denies Obama Admin Funding Pro-Abortion Constitution
• Americans Deserve to Hear How Donald Berwick Would Ration Medicare
• Pro-Lifers: White House Pregnancy Fund Could Fund Pro-Abortion Groups
• Pro-Life Women's Group Confident White House Pregnancy Funds Airtight
• Justice Ginsburg: Supreme Court Won't Reverse Roe v. Wade, Unlimited Abortion
• Pro-Life Advocates Protest National NAACP Convention Over Abortion Backing
• Sarah Palin's PAC Brings in Nearly $900K, May Point to 2012 Presidential Bid
• Family Research Council Responds to British Fetal Pain Study, Says It's Flawed
• Indiana Poll Has Pro-Life Senate Candidate Dan Coats Leading Brad Ellsworth
• Alaska Churches Urged to Promote Vote for Parental Notification on Abortion
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Senate Judiciary Committee Will Vote on Pro-Abortion Elena Kagan Next Week
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- The Senate Judiciary Committee had been slated to vote on the nomination of pro-abortion activist Elena Kagan for the Supreme Court on Tuesday. However, members of the panel will now vote on her nomination next week instead and Kagan is expected to be approved by the Democrat-controlled committee.
Republican senators decided today to use the right given under the Senate Judiciary Committee rules that allow any member of the committee to delay a confirmation vote by one week.
Aides to Republican lawmakers told various news sources that lawmakers wanted more time to review Kagan's record and a plethora of documents from during her time in the Clinton administration.
because the vote on Kagan's nomination to the high court can't be delayed again, that means the committee will likely cast a vote on Tuesday, July 20 and Senate Democrats would have until august 6, a Friday, to meet their goal of confirming her to replace retiring pro-abortion Justice John Paul Stevens before Congress takes its August break.
Currently, two Democrats -- pro-abortion Sens. Mark Udall and Al Franken, have issues statements saying they support Kagan's nomination.
That contrasts with nine Republicans who are on record opposing Kagan: Bob Bennett, Jim DeMint, Orrin Hatch, Jim Inhofe, Johnny Isakson, Mike Johanns, John McCain, Mitch McConnell, and Lisa Murkowski.
During the Clinton administration, Kagan worked to persuade two medical organizations to change their opinion from originally stating that partial-birth abortions are never medically necessary for women. Full story at LifeNews.com
U.S Embassy in Kenya Denies Obama Admin Funding Pro-Abortion Constitution
Nairobi, Kenya (LifeNews.com) -- The United States embassy in Kenya issued a statement today saying the administration of President Barack Obama is not spending taxpayer dollars funding a campaign to support a pro-abortion Constitution Kenya voters will consider at the polls next month.
The Obama administration has come under question from members of the U.S. Congress for allegedly spending as much as $10 million on an educational campaign designed to support the document.
While Obama and Vice President Joe Biden have lent their support to the voting process, they have carefully couched their language in terms of supporting the constitutional review process rather than urging support for the document itself.
The proposed new Kenyan constitution concerns pro-life and church groups both locally and around the world because provisions in it would overturn the current legal protections women and unborn children enjoy and would essentially authorize unlimited abortions despite the pro-life cultural views of most Kenyans.
The United States embassy in Nairobi said it is not providing financial support for the Yes campaign for the August 4 vote on the proposed constitution.
These claims are categorically false, and those making such allegations are lying, the statement said, according to APA News. The US Government is supporting the constitutional review process as the centerpiece of the broad reform agenda agreed to following the post-election crisis."
That mirrors language coming last week from a representative of Biden.
After publishing a news story compiling the developments over the last two months that LifeNews.com has chronicled, Fox News received a response from Biden's office. Full story at LifeNews.com
Americans Deserve to Hear How Donald Berwick Would Ration Medicare
by Mitch McConnell
Ordinarily, Senators come to the floor to talk about the things that happen in Washington while we're here. Today I'd like to talk about something that happened last week while we weren't here. I'm referring, of course, to the President s outrageous decision to take advantage of Congress s absence last week to sneak Donald Berwick in as the new head of Medicare and Medicaid.
As is well known, Congress has a constitutional duty to examine presidential nominees like Dr. Berwick. But apparently, the prospect of giving the American people an opportunity to hear this nominee defend his past praise for government-run systems that ration health care was worrisome enough for the administration that it sought to ignore congressional oversight altogether.
As it turned out, the administration s plan backfired because even Democrats are outraged at this blatant attempt to prevent the American people from hearing this man talk about what he plans to do with Medicare and Medicaid. As usual, the administration wants to blame Republicans for its own failures. But in this case, the administration s failure to respect the right of the American people to study Dr. Berwick s record is being criticized by just about everyone, including the Democrat chairman of the committee in charge of reviewing his nomination.
Here s what Chairman Baucus said shortly after the appointment was made:
`Senate confirmation of presidential appointees is an essential process prescribed by the Constitution that serves as a check on executive power and protects Montanans and all Americans by ensuring that crucial questions are asked of the nominee, and answered.
So despite what the administration would like people to think, this recess appointment had nothing whatsoever to do with Republicans. The fact is, Republicans were looking forward to this debate. We welcomed this hearing. And anyone who looks at the facts knows any suggestion to the contrary is nonsense. So the charge is laughable." Full story at LifeNews.com
Pro-Lifers: White House Pregnancy Assistance Fund Could Fund Pro-Abortion Groups
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- The new pregnancy assistance fund the White House quietly announced earlier this month has already drawn skepticism from pro-life advocates. Now, other pro-life leaders who are chiming in on its creation say they are worried grant money will go to pro-abortion organizations.
As LifeNews.com reported, the new $25 million program, which was part of the abortion funding health care bill, is supposedly designed to help pregnant and parenting teens and women.
The grant money, which will be provided mostly to state governments,is designed for educational institutions and community organizations that provide programs to help pregnant women such as scholastic assistance, help for child care and housing, and other programs.
Jeanne Monahan, director of the Center for Human Dignity at the Family Research Council, told CNS News that an example of a potential grant recipient mentioned in the HHS grant information had the government sending money to pro-abortion groups.
She cited Text4baby," a program that sounds innocent enough but had the federal government working with the pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute and affiliates of Planned Parenthood, the nation's largest abortion business.
Monahan is also worried that pregnancy centers, which have provided assistance for pregnant and parenting clients for decades, will find it difficult to obtain funding.
I think it s fair to say (pregnancy resource centers) will find it challenging to apply for these grants, Monahan said. Full story at LifeNews.com
Pro-Life Women's Group Confident White House Pregnancy Funds Airtight
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- While other pro-life groups are concerned about the new White House Pregnancy Fund, Feminists for Life of America contacted LifeNews.com today to say it believes the creation of the fund is good news and it is confident the money will end up in the right hands.
The Obama administration quietly announced the $25 million fund about two weeks ago, and it is a section of the controversial national health care bill President Barack Obama signed that also contains massive abortion funding.
While help for pregnant and parenting mothers is something that has been a hallmark of the pro-life movement for decades, some groups say they're concerned on two levels.
The organizations -- including Focus on the Family, FRC, Care Net and Heartbeat -- say they're concerned Planned Parenthood and pro-abortion groups will wind up receiving some of the money. They also note the total funding is a "drop in the bucket" compared with the hundreds of millions in government monies pro-abortion groups and the abortion business receive.
But Feminists for Life of America is applauding the new grants, saying they are the "first federal grants of their kind" and they were "inspired by Feminists for Life's work on college campuses to develop resources for this underserved population."
"This is what we have been working towards. Pregnancy and parenting should never terminate an education," FFLA president Serrin Foster told LifeNews.com today. Full story at LifeNews.com
Justice Ginsburg: Supreme Court Won't Reverse Roe v. Wade, Unlimited Abortions
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Last week, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said she is confident the Supreme Court will never overturn the Roe v. Wade decision that resulted in unlimited abortions in the United States. She said doing so would hurt poor people who supposedly have no other resource during an unplanned pregnancy.
Participating in a discussion during the Aspen Ideas Festival in Colorado, Ginsburg said the infamous decision that allowed more than 52 million abortions won't be overturned because women and society has gotten used to it.
"Over a generation of young women have grown up, understanding they can control their own reproductive capacity, and in fact their life's destiny," Ginsburg said, according to a Politico report. "We will never go back to the way it once was."
"If people realize that, maybe they will have a different attitude," she said of supposed reasons why poor women need abortions.
In an introduction of Ginsburg for the event, pro-abortion former Justice Sandra Day O'Connor said Ginsburg is relishing adding a new member of the Supreme Court -- pro-abortion activist Elena Kagan, whom President Barack Obama has nominated to replace retiring pro-abortion Justice John Paul Stevens.
O'Connor said Ginsburg is "looking forward to now getting another woman on the court," Politico indicated. Full story at LifeNews.com
Pro-Life Advocates Protest National NAACP Convention Over Abortion Backing
Kansas City, MO (LifeNews.com) -- As black civil rights activists from across the country meet today in Kansas City for the NAACP convention, pro-life advocates are there to encourage them to oppose abortion. Black pro-lifers and supporters are letting convention-goers know the NAACP takes a position backing legalized abortion.
Delagates to the convention also heard from pro-abortion First Lady Michelle Obama, who addressed delegates at the 101st NAACP national convention on the subject of childhood obesity.
Last year, more than 50 pro-life advocates protested outside the convention in Detroit and some of the same pro-life leaders will gather again this year, including Rev Clenard Childress and other leaders of LEARN.
The Life Education and Resource Network will again present the case for an open forum on the issue of abortion and the black community.
"When the most dangerous place for an African American is being in the womb of their African American mother it's time for the most revered African American institution to bring this issue to the forefront of discussion," Childress told LifeNews.com.
LEARN has been assisted by the Center For Bioethical Reform at each of the NAACP Convention protests in prior years and the two groups are pairing up once again with large abortion signs. Full story at LifeNews.com
Sarah Palin's PAC Brings in Nearly $900K, May Point to 2012 Presidential Bid
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- The political action committee former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin set up to allow her to support candidates for other offices brought in nearly $900,000 in the last quarter in donations. The number is generating a buzz in political circles as it shows Palin may be serious about a presidential bid in 2012.
New documents filed Sunday with the Federal Election Commission reveal Palin's PAC brought in $865,815 in the second quarter and it shelled out $87,500 to Republican candidates in the same period.
SarahPAC ended the quarter with more than $1 million in the bank, putting Palin the position of providing financial support for the many political candidates she has endorsed over the last few months.
Palin has already shown her ability to draw crowds, get media attention and pump up the pro-life base of the Republican Party, and an ability to raise large sums of money enhances her profile as a potential challenger to pro-abortion President Barack Obama in 2012.
Writing at National Review, Daniel Foster noted the new FEC reports showing the donations.
"Of course, that doesn't mean she's considering such a run, but it does mean she could make such a run for herself or for somebody else a good deal easier," he said. Full story at LifeNews.com
Family Research Council Responds to British Fetal Pain Study, Says It's Flawed
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- The Family Research Council today released a new report that refutes claims made recently by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) saying an unborn child is not able to feel pain before 24 weeks of development.
FRC is concerned that detractors are using RCOG's study to uphold Britain's current legalization of abortions up to 24 weeks.
The pro-life organization is also worried abrotion advocates in the United States could also try to use this study to argue against Nebraska's new law that states an unborn baby can feel pain at 20 weeks and which, as a result, prohibits abortions from that point.
Jeanne Monahan, the director of FRC's Center for Human Dignity, responded to the study saying it is seriously flawed and could lead to a profound moral injustice, the more cavalier taking of unborn life.
She told LifeNews.com, "The [RCOG] report appears to be politically timed and motivated, given the growing momentum in the U.K. to protect the life of the unborn by lowering the time limits for legal abortion."
Monahan says RCOG gets away with saying unborn children can't feel by by "using a faulty definition of pain in this study."
"A number of experts in the field of fetal development, who were not consulted for this report, previously have refuted the idea that the cortex needs to be fully developed for an unborn baby to feel pain," she noted. "On the contrary, it is possible that unborn babies between 20-30 weeks of development can experience greater pain than a full-term newborn or older child." Full story at LifeNews.com
Indiana Poll Has Pro-Life Senate Candidate Dan Coats Leading Brad Ellsworth
Indianapolis, IN (LifeNews.com) -- Fresh from his endorsement by two pro-life organizations, pro-life Senate candidate Dan Coats has a solid lead over his opponent Brad Ellsworth. The new Rasmussen Reports poll comes on the heels of the Susan B. Anthony List supporting Coats over Ellsworth, despite the latter saying he is pro-life.
The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of likely voters finds Coats with 51% support, while Ellsworth earns 30% of the vote, his poorest showing to date.
Another 6 percent of Hoosiers favor another candidate while 12 percent remain undecided.
Last month, Coats dropped below 50% but still led Ellsworth 47% to 33%. In five previous surveys back to February, support for Coats has ranged from 46% to 54%. In that same period, Ellsworth has picked up 32% to 36% of the vote.
Pollster Scott Rasmussen commented on the results: "Indicative of voter unhappiness in Indiana is that Ellsworth s first statewide TV ad which just began airing in the last few days mentions his background as a sheriff and criticizes Washington lawmakers. But the ad never says that Ellsworth is currently a member of Congress." Full story at LifeNews.com
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Alaska Churches Urged to Promote Vote for Parental Notification on Abortion
Juneau, AK (LifeNews.com) -- On August 24, Alaskans will vote on a ballot initiative that requires abortion practitioners to inform parents before performing an abortion on a minor girl. With only weeks left before the vote, supporters of the initiative have asked area churches to raise awareness and support for the proposed law.
In a July 2 email to supporters, Alaskans for Parental Rights urged pastors, priests and church leaders to speak from the pulpit loud and clear about this important cultural matter.
In addition, the group asked church leaders to distribute informational materials such as bumper stickers and yard signs.
While religious organizations cannot endorse a candidate or political party, the IRS has clearly stated that religious groups have the right to take strong stands on policy issues or proposed legislation without jeopardizing their non-profit status.
Anchorage Archbishop Roger Schwietz has repeatedly urged Catholic parishes to back the initiative and has even called on priests to address the issue during Masses. Full story at LifeNews.com
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